Holy crap. It happened. I was on
The Price Is Right. I have wanted to do this for as long as I can remember. Where do I start?
Hayley picked the contestants for today. My mother (seen in the audience) gave me a huge interview boost, introducing herself as a second-generation fan, and myself as a third-generation fan. (It's true, my grandmother watched it from day one.) One of my earliest memories is of my mother screaming El Cheapo! at the TV. Funnily enough I had to kind of explain El Cheapo to Hayley as they don't seem to pull that trick anymore. She asked me my favorite game and I immediately said Clock. We got out of the interview room and I immediately realized the significance of that question. After we got loaded in the studio I made sure to keep the energy up, and danced to the music. I'm not usually someone to dance, and I think I look quite silly doing it, but I figured I should to keep up the energy, and I'm pretty sure I saw Hayley (and even a camera) pointed in my direction.
Show starts, first card drops, and it's me. Holy crap. I just got called first. Go down to CR, seems like an eternity for the other 3 to arrive. I figured Joyce would get picked, she was full of energy and has clearly found the fountain of youth. George has to read Drew's intro twice for some reason.
Drew says they're using special eco-friendly prizes, so I'm thinking "crap, none of this will have showed up on the show before." First IUFB I just pulled that number out of thin air, went over by $46. Neat. I figured that out when Drew pulled the "aw man" stall he does when someone goes over by an amount lower than sales tax. So Josué goes up to play Cliff, and I'm screaming 20/30/40 the whole time. I thought he had lost on the 2nd item, surprised when Hans stopped.
Second IUFB, in hindsight it's good that I didn't win this, because given the staging it was either a multiprizer or L7... and probably not L7 given they used the TT. Way off on this one. Drew was cracking jokes about the Andora products with the vanity.
Show goes to commercial and I turn to Joyce and ask if I am dreaming. Drew and George start talking about Bewitched, trying to remember
Endora. Drew remembered that Agnes Moorehead was in Orson Welles's theatre troupe, what was that called? I pipe up "the Mercury Theatre." Drew looks at me like 'you are 20, how did you know that,' and he starts talking to me. He asks what I do, I say computer security, and he starts having a LOT of fun with that. He polled the audience and said "I'm just going to talk to John, if you don't mind," and the audience approved. He talked about his friendship with Steve Wozniak, how he once was introduced to Doug Englebart, the inventor of the mouse (though his name escaped him at the time), and his encounter with a couple very talented computer security wizards ("What can I do to secure my phone?" "Nothing"). He jokingly asked what my mother's maiden name was just before the show came back from break.
Show comes back, Billie comes on down. I figured she would get picked, I saw her dancing a lot. gamesurf wants me to bid $700 but I instead saw his signaling $2000 trying to get Billie to go over, so I bid $2000. I immediately thought that was not going to go well, but then Drew says "two thousand" and I immediately knew I had won. I started going up the wrong way but I caught myself. The new CR doesn't seem to have arrows for the direction anymore.
I get up to Drew, and I can see Pocket from behind the GPT. I immediately think I'm screwed. I actually muttered to myself "FORK," perhaps becoming the first contestant to ever fork his own game. There are a lot of games I wouldn't trust myself to play, Pocket is one of them.
The vane display in Pocket needs dusting very badly. It does operate so fast that you can barely see it in motion.
There is a bin on the back of the stand next to Drew where the "used" cards go; I had to laugh when Drew tossed one of the low value cards in frustration and the card missed the bin and landed in front of Door 2.
I know how the game works but Drew has to explain the rules, then we start playing the game. I figured out the 7, then gamesurf was suggesting I go from lowest to highest, and picking the cards on the edges -- though unless Drew was rearranging envelopes, that last one I picked on the bottom won the game. In hindsight I probably should have skipped the 5 while trying for the 3rd digit, and then avoided the 9, as there were no weird options on the car, but oh well, I WON anyway.
It wasn't until a couple weeks ago that I discovered the .75 card hadn't been found since February 2020. I did immediately confirm after the show that the $2.75 had never actually been seen; I'm pretty happy with all the little statistics I managed to set while pulling apart what I think was a fairly difficult setup.
I guess I'm one of the few Pocket players to ditch the .25 card with Drew (at a taping the next day, I asked Jesse on the staff if I should have kept the card, and he unfortunately said no). Not sure why I did that, I think my brain quit working when confronted with the fact that I had won. I certainly think I looked VERY awkward and sounded very bad on TV, but I'm sure it's par for the course for everyone who has to watch me day in and day out.
Five things that didn't make air from my game:
- Drew also cracked a joke that I went to Benjamin Franklin Middle School (I did not), but Adam came over the speaker and advised Drew to hold while they checked out whether that comment was OK or not. During this stopdown, Drew lamented that you can't say certain things on TV, like you have to say tissues instead of Kleenex, and I mentioned Standards & Practices. For a second there I was worried that I had managed to cause a stopdown, but that was not the case. During the stopdown, George offered to read the prize copy again, I mentioned that I had heard about the wheel locks, and commented to Drew and Chris Donnan that they put options on cars to screw with people like me (despite the Elantra Hybrid having yet to appear on the show this season). George said "OK, Mr. Wheel Locks" and reread the car plug.
- George prefaced the reveal with "Well, John, this has a computer..."
- Between the .05 reveal and the .75 reveal, Drew tossed to Chris and explained that he's the guy who sets up the games, and that he knows where the good stuff is on the board. I did say hi to Chris.
- Drew got me GOOD with a fake on the .75 reveal after that, he hesitated and I thought I was about to get sunk, he said "Bad news, you're going to have to pay taxes on a brand new car!"
- After hugging James, which just happened on its own, I did climb in the car and wave to the camera.
As a PG3 player, I was actually pretty happy that the SCSDs are taped late now, because it meant I was in play longer. Chris Donnan explains the rules for the SCSD these days. I practically mouthed along with his explanation because it is practically Bob's old explanation. After that, I told the other two contestants that it was probably going to be one of them in the Showcase, I know the wheel is not kind to the LFATs lately. It was at this point I briefly talked with both Chris and Hayley. I told Chris "you were probably pretty happy I tried that 9," and he shrugged and said "we've been looking for some wins lately." Interesting take but I think he knows what he's doing. I completely forgot to ask whether he knows of FPG or GRECO. I'd love to get the chance to talk to him again someday.
Everything was going fine in the Showcase Showdown until Kathleen got the .90, then I really knew I was screwed. Said hello, went over by a dime, oh well. I'll try again in 10 years!
When Clock Game came around on the Turntable, the video switcher was sending the prize graphic to the display where the game's name is. Adam came over the speaker to tell Drew to "hold" and Drew complied by reducing his speaking rate to one word every two seconds before stopping entirely. They then reset the display and reshot the game intro. I could see the Clock ARP from the program monitor on the back of the "door frame" on the Turntable, so I was groaning when she came within $2 at the last second. Drew walked off the TT and deposited his microphone in a holder they have over there while saying "darnit!" under his breath. Drew wants everyone to win so badly and I love that.
During prize processing, the prize department informed me that BOTH the car and the pilates reformer will be paid in cash. The car I wasn't
too surprised to get cash-in-lieu (and fine with, because I like my classic '92 Taurus a lot), but the fact that they can't even get an IUFB prize and have to pay it out as cash surprised me. Unfortunately, I didn't get to be in-person for the Showcases as you cannot enter or exit the studio while the show is going. Wouldn't have been much help anyway -- I was way under on both of these. Wasn't particularly interested in the trips, or appliances, maybe the Mini Cooper would have been more cash? Who knows?
Also during processing, Cody asked WHAT TIME the show is on. I said 11 ET/10 CT, same timeslot since April 1979. People slowly figured out I know this show backwards and forwards; at one point, a backstage staffer quipped "you're hired."
All in all this was unreal and I'm still not sure that it actually happened. At least I can put my license plate holder out on my bookshelf for now. I guess I'll get my posterboard framed when I bring my Check Game check in for framing (that one I bought on eBay the other day).
I figured immediately after the show that I would be the YouTube clip of the day, and sure enough, here we are.
